Oregon hires firm to link health exchange to federal site

PORTLAND — Oregon has hired a tech firm to help transfer the botched Cover Oregon health-insurance exchange to the federal site and finish building the state’s Medicaid system.

The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) will pay Deloitte Consulting as much as $18.4 million to be the “system integrator” that oversees the transition.

It’s the same company hired to do an analysis and build a road map for the transition. In April, Deloitte recommended the state abandon its troubled exchange because it would be cheaper to switch to the federal site than fix it.

Cover Oregon officials agreed and decided to switch to the federal portal.

Oregon’s exchange was the only one in the nation that didn’t let the public enroll in coverage in one sitting. Instead, Oregonians had to use a time-consuming hybrid paper-online application process to get health insurance.

Six top officials connected to the Cover Oregon debacle have resigned.

Deloitte will create a new website that will redirect Oregonians to HealthCare.gov to enroll in private plans and to the OHA website to enroll in Medicaid.